That’s a lot of savings, but it’ll take many years to recoup his initial investment, let alone the public money involved. It’s that public money that chafes him, evidence of governmental intrusion in the marketplace.

It’s a message that runs counter to the prevailing trend, especially in New York’s Monroe County. Greece, N.Y., a town in the county, recently lured a solar manufacturer from California, a coup local and state officials are touting as part of the region’s future.

Punton doesn’t buy it — at least on the consumer scale. And spending $13,000 of his own money on a project he predicted would fail doesn’t bother him.

He considers the $29,500 the government gave him a foolish investment — throwing good money after bad — and misses no opportunity to point it out.

“It’s a billboard to talk about it to people as they come by,” he said. “It’s disappointing how little people know about the economics of it. … I don’t think it’s a smart investment to pay someone three times what they’re putting in.”

In an e-mail, an authority spokeswoman did not address Punton’s financial concerns but said solar power “plays an important part in New York state’s diversified renewable energy portfolio, which was created to reduce electricity use from fossil fuels and increase the amount of electricity from renewable sources.”

A recent report from the non-profit advocacy group Environment America found that the United States has tripled its solar-power-generating capacity since 2010 and increased it tenfold since 2007. According to the study’s co-author, despite the increases, the U.S. gets less than 1% of its electricity from solar power.

In 2007, there were about 500 megawatts of solar photovoltaics installed across the country, said Rob Sargent, the co-author. Today, it’s well above 7,293 megawatts.

“I don’t think it’s a smart investment to pay someone three times what they’re putting in.”

— Jeffrey Punton, on his solar panels

Punton, 60, works as a certified public accountant. He’s a libertarian and self-taught tinkerer with a half-dozen projects contributing to the disarray in his yard.

There’s the biofuel conversion setup, in which fryer grease from a Chinese restaurant is cooked, separated out and percolated through a 15-foot PVC column full of wood chips before filling the 40-gallon jugs that line the pathway to Punton’s porch, the concrete steps for which he poured and molded himself.

There are the two 55-gallon compost drums, the output of which he scatters on asparagus, chard, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, peppers, scallions, quinces and herbs tucked among piles of sand, broken up pavement and coils of wire.

It’s an impressive urban homestead for someone who considers much environmental advocacy “stupid.”

There’s the two-seat airplane he started assembling 30 years ago but abandoned because of an allergic reaction to the epoxy that turned his arms bright red. The components are still scattered through his house, and rumors of a new type of adhesive have piqued his interest.

But it’s the solar panels that dominate the property. They’re mounted on a pergola he built that tilts to follow the sun and provides shade for plants beneath.

It’s a fine example of a person making a small difference for the environment — except the person doing it doesn’t approve at all.

“Overall,” Punton said, “the project just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

Contributing: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY.

By the numbers

$42,480, total project cost.

$29,504, combined value of subsidies and tax credits.

$12,976, Punton’s investment.

15,000, approximate kilowatt hours generated so far by solar panels, as of July 1.

18.6 cents, average residential retail cost of electricity per kilowatt hour, May 2013.